STRAT_SCRAPS volume one hundred and fifty three

If you do, you’ll certainly be choosing a crowded quadrant. And without the magic of advertising, it’s very difficult to grow in a quadrant that’s crowded. Your customer doesn’t know what to do, so he does nothing. The alternative is to build your own quadrant. To find two axes that have been overlooked. To build a story, a true story, that keeps y

a consistent image in the marketplace is a valuable asset, which can be rapidly compromised if the firm attempts to serve too diverse a set of client needs. Few firms, in my experience, have a clear picture of their true positioning along the expertise, experience, efficiency spectrum.

If you want a long-lived brand, avoid strategy altogether — instead have an Ideal (like Nike, Apple) or an executional device (Andrex, The Economist). Anything with a strategy is doomed never to outlive your client. Discuss.